Nihilist - The Nihilist Demos (2005)

One of the most trailblazing of the early-90s death metal bands, Sweden's Entombed earned a worldwide audience on the basis of its immense instrumental skills and willingness to experiment sonically. The band's chameleonlike nature is the stuff of legend – just when you thought you had Entombed all figured out, the band would go and change directions on you. As maddening as this might be for hardcore fans, it has served to earn Entombed a status as one of the most influential bands in the heavy metal genre.

Before there was Entombed, however, there was Nihilist, a band formed by future Entombed members Alex Hellid and Nicke Andersson. Harbingers of the sound that Entombed would eventually unleash upon the world with its groundbreaking Left Hand Path album, Nihilist, in many ways, sketched out the blueprint and threw together the foundation upon which death metal was built.

To say that Nihilist's early sound is a revelation might in itself be an understatement. This self-titled release features four distinctive demo sessions from across two years, several songs that, although circulated for a decade and a half in underground metal circles, have never been released on CD to my knowledge. The eleven songs remembered here display the band's evolution and maturation, from the low-fi, bass-heavy screamers of "Sentenced To Death" and "Carnal Leftovers" (from 1988's Premature Autopsy demo) to the no-quarter-asked-and-none-given sonic barrage of "Morbid Devourment" (from 1989's The Drowned Sessions).

Fueled by Andersson's massive percussion work, Nihilist blends the heaviest of metal with extreme hardcore and no little amount of doom-and-gloom, delivering a soundtrack to oblivion. Andersson's drums hit you like the galloping heels of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse while Hellid's surgically-precise guitar leads are paired with muscular riffs and LG Petrov's demonic vocals.

Rounding out the disc is a trio of early Entombed demos from 1989's But Life Goes On sessions. These three recordings – "But Life Goes On," "Shreds Of Flesh" and "The Truth Beyond" – would earn the band its first recording contract, Entombed later reprising a couple of the tunes for its official debut, 1990's Left Hand Path. The demos offered here are raw and undiluted, even by death metal standards, offering metal fans one of the most brutal sounds this side of the River Styx.

After disbanding Nihilist, Andersson and Hellid would recruit the band's vocalist Petrov and frequent guitar collaborator Ulf Cederlund to form Entombed and, as they say, the rest is history. The history of this important band can be found in the grooves of these demos, however, Nihilist providing an integral missing link in the storied history of death metal. Heartily recommended for fans of bands like Napalm Death, Obituary, even Pantera...and, of course, Entombed. (Candlelight Records)

(Click on the CD cover to buy The Nihilist Demos from Amazon.com)